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Supporting Characters
Lips Manlis/Bob Honor
"Lips" Manlis was a criminal figure who caused some trouble for Dick Tracy during the 1930s. He had a wide mouth and thick lips (hence his nickname).
- Cruel and Unusual Death: "The Bath" in the 1990 movie where he's drowned in a cement crate.
- Fat Bastard: In the movie, to the disgust of Breathless Mahoney.
- Heel–Face Turn: He reformed and changed his name to one that's a wee bit on the nose.
- Ink-Suit Actor: His comic strip appearance was loosely based on John Dillinger. His movie version is an homage to Don Vito Corleone from The Godfather.
- Paid Harem: Mimi is this in the comic strips, Breathless Mahoney serves as this in his movie. Both of them have Hidden Depths are are fleshed out characters in their own right.
- Related in the Adaptation: Is Big Boy's mentor in the 1990 movie.
Jean Penfield
Jean Penfield was the daughter of an old friend of Chief Brandon. An aspiring author, she was first seen gathering material for a book about the underworld.
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Awesome, Dear Boy: She's motivated to write exposés about the underworld for the money and attention it brings her more than anything else. - Beneath Notice: As "The Phantom", Jean used a cleaning lady disguise to spy on criminals.
- Big Damn Heroes: When the crooks trying to stop "The Phantom"'s articles attack the editor of the paper and manage to get the upper hand on Tracy, the "cleaning woman" they'd all overlooked turns the tide by opening fire on the crooks.
- Designated Girl Fight: She and Tess get into one over Dick Tracy, which gives Spaldoni the inspiration to frame Tess for her murder.
- External Combustion: Jimmy White and Spaldoni try to kill her with a car bomb.
- Faking the Dead: After she and Jimmy White crash into a massive gas storage tank, setting off a huge explosion, it seemed she'd been killed. In truth, she used a disguise to go underground and start sending reports on the underworld to news papers under the nom de plume of "The Phantom".
- Forceful Kiss: After she declares to the papers that she's engaged to Tracy, which causes Tess to break up with him, he goes to confront her. When Tracy tells her she cost him his fiancee, she laughs and declares that impossible as she's his fiancee, then grabs him for one of these. Tracy slaps her.
- Genius Ditz: She's apparently an incredible writer, and very good at digging up information, but she also does things like bail out vicious criminals for interviews, publish exposés on the underworld under her own name without caring about the consequences, and makes up a relationship with Dick Tracy in her head (granted she had a little accidental help).
- Intrepid Reporter: An author version. Little things like being held at gunpoint, having her house invaded or surviving a car bomb or two aren't going to stop her from getting the scoop for her books on the underworld. Even Dick Tracy telling her that her life wouldn't be worth a plugged penny if the book ever got published doesn't stop her. Later as "The Phantom" she actively spied on criminals and wrote columns about them for the paper.
- Love Triangle: Yeah, she wishes! Or rather, wished.
- Meaningful Name: A writer named Penfield.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Resembles Claudette Colbert.
- No Sense of Personal Space: Even as soon as she met Tracy, she was leaning very close to him and taking opportunities to touch him.
- Not What It Looks Like: After she's thought to have been blown up, then missing, when she finally turns up after a few weeks, Tracy's so happy to see her that he takes her in his arms. Riiiiight when Tess walks into the room.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Tracy denies that they're engaged after her editor sees him embracing her out of, as mentioned, joy at seeing her alive. Later she asks: "But we really are engaged, right?" and he smirks and says "YEAH?" (emphasis already present). That bit of sarcasm goes over her head. Nice one, Dick.
- Self-Proclaimed Love Interest: She seemed to get the notion in her head after her a newspaper worker asked if they were engaged, mistaking Tracy's joyful embrace at seeing at seeing her alive for something way deeper than friendship. Tracy was amused when she asked if they were really engaged, but found Jean's delusional engagement announcement and subsequent break-up with a misunderstanding Tess considerably less funny.
- Skewed Priorities: When Tracy tells her her book on the underworld might get her killed, she's pleased about how good it must be.
- Stalker with a Crush: She delusionally believed that she and Dick had a relationship that didn't exist and even proclaimed herself his fiancee.
- Starving Artist: Inverted. Her books are wildly successful, enough so for her to able to casually draw $20,000 1934 dollars (look that up) out of her account so she can bail Jimmy White out.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Dick Tracy told her that exposing the truth about the underworld would eventually get her killed. After Faking the Dead, she publicly reveals that she's alive, knowing that at least one criminal is aware of where she lives. Aaaand she gets killed, albeit under more complicated circumstances than you'd expect.
Mary Steele
Junior's birth mother, who feels herself unworthy of her son, given the mistakes she's made.
- Action Survivor: Although she's not a fighter, she has shown a great deal of ingenuity and courage on several occasions.
- Beneath Notice: After taking up a maid job for a member of Boris Arson's gang, she realized she was working for crooks and began eavesdropping on their plans. Boris was suspicious of her at first, but foolishly allowed her to clean the room they'd been planning in—allowing her to uncover evidence of their massive plot to steal from six federal bank vaults and take it to Washington DC.
- A Boy and His X: She secretly leaves a Scotty dog on Tracy and Junior's doorstep when she thinks she's leaving her son for good.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: When Mary starts getting cold feet about meeting Junior again Larceny Lu drops her friendly veneer, and has her henchman Mortimer viciously whip Mary's bare back. She cares too much about Junior to crack, though.
- Dropped a Bridge on Her: In 1961, years after she left Junior's life entirely, she ended up in a dilapidated house owned by a former criminal and the legal guardian of two small children. Then she got hit by someone's golf ball and died immediately. Yup.
- Fainting: After explaining who she was, how Larceny Lu and Mortimer were able to threaten Junior all because she wanted to see him again, and how she knew she had to stay out of the boy's life for his own good, Mary's overcome with emotion and passes out.
- Greasy Spoon: After leaving Steve, she got some money together and took over a roadside restaurant called The Coffee Pot. Later she reestablished it in the city, using the reward money she got for ratting out Boris Arson.
- Horrible Judge of Character:
- Weary of the hard life she had with her prospector husband, when a drifter showed up on their homestead promising her a life of thrills and adventure she took her baby and jumped at the chance. Thus her new life with Steve the Tramp began, and it turns out most of the thrills came from worrying about whether he'd beat her or not and the adventure came from wandering around starving all the time.
- She trusted "Larceny Lu" and her cohort enough to sell her restaurant for money to spend in the city on their suggestion, and let the two of them hold the lions' share "for safety".
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Realizing that Junior had a better life with Dick Tracy than she could provide led to her taking a much less active role in his life, apparently losing touch entirely by the time he was a young adult.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Getting hit and killed by an errant golf ball was a tragic accident, but it resulted in the cops eventually finding out the guy who hit it had escaped arrest for murder forty years prior.
- My Greatest Failure: She's very upset with herself for leaving her loving husband for a criminal drifter, and then leaving her son behind with that drifter.
- No Doubt the Years Have Changed Me: Tracy doesn't even recognize her when he meets her in 1961 while searching the property she lives on for hidden evidence.
- Parental Abandonment: She left Junior with Harry the Tramp, and after she reunited with the kid, started meeting him less and less until she's not so much as mentioned in the strip.
- Stalker without a Crush: After getting to the city, she spends a great deal of time observing Junior from a distance and trying to work up the courage to talk to him. This frustrates Larceny Lu, who wants Junior's inheritance, and makes Tracy suspicious. Fortunately, it also makes Junior decide to turn the tables and follow her to her place of residence, where he finds Larceny Lu's torn-up threat and brings it back to Tracy.
- The Exit Is That Way: Recognized by one of Boris Arson's henchmen and brought before the evil ringleader, she's ordered to call Dick Tracy and lead him into a trap. Suddenly, she throws the phone in Arson' face and grabs the a gun left on the table! Pointing the gun at the criminals, she demands to be allowed to leave safely and goes through the door...and into the closet. The threat of having tear gas pumped in leads her to surrender. "A" for effort, though.
- Unwitting Pawn: Unaware that her former husband had died, she's manipulated into trying to trying to get into contact with her son so Larceny Lu and Mortimer can steal his inheritance.
Toby Patton (nee Townley)
A young cashier Mary hired for her restaurant, Toby's cheerful and sweet, but a bit naive.
- Accidental Murder: Sent by the police to Bookie Joe to negotiate for Tess's freedom, she instead secretly swipes a .38 off the chief's desk and tries to bring the bookie in herself, in order to avenge her boyfriend Mark's death. Joe's henchman knocks over an oil lamp and starts a fire, which eventually leads to Joe burning to death.
- Busman's Vocabulary: While she's caught up in horse-betting, she inadvertently slips a couple of gambling related phrases into her speech at times.
- Character Development: All the hardship she goes through helps her become more mature.
- Frame-Up: One of Bookie Joe's cohorts, captured and held in the same room as she, uses a pen-gun to shoot the officer watching them, and conceals it in her hair out of revenge for indirectly killing his boss. Since the comatose officer (and only witness) dies and the evidence is stacked against her, she's convicted for his murder and sent to jail. Eventually Tracy managed to scrape up the evidence, as well as a confession from the real killer, to get her out, but not before she's temporarily blinded by tear gas during a riot.
- The Gambling Addict: In her first arc, though she tries to cover it up, she's extremely into horse-racing. Not nearly as much as her boyfriend Mark Masters, though.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: She seems to be based off of Toby Wing, appearance-wise.
- Put on a Bus: After she's cleared of murder and her vision is restored, Pat takes her on a date and she proceeds to disappear from the narrative...until years later when it turns out she's gotten married and had a baby. Once her new arc is over, she disappears again...until decades later when Max Allan Collins starts writing the strip and she and Pat reunite and get married.
- Sanity Slippage: Toby has a breakdown shortly after being wrongfully put in prison, though she does recover and make a few friends among the inmates...just before the riot.
- Spell My Name With An S: Townley or Townly? The former appeared first, but the latter was used more recently.
- Stealing from the Till: Shortly after she was hired, she secretly began taking the cash receipts Mary entrusted her with putting in the bank and giving them to her bank teller boyfriend Mark who used them to bet at the horse races. Since they always won enough to put the money back in Mary's account, Toby figured as long as she was only borrowing the money for a bit, it was okay. She was unaware that Mark was embezzling from other customers as well until he decided to go for broke and bet 5000 dollars of embezzled money (the equivalent of over $100,000 back then!) and his streak of luck finally wore out.
- Suspicious Spending: Tracy starts suspecting she's up to something when he sees her wearing a dress he recognizes as seeing in a shop window for 75 bucks—way above the twelve bucks a week Mary's giving her as a cashier. When Mary questions her—subtly—about her family and the tutoring job she mentioned, Toby gets evasive.
- Taking the Kids: After getting married to Kress Kroywen, her father-in-law insisted on using their baby to test the vaccine he'd devised for a sleeping sickness that had been killing infants. Toby found herself less than enthused with the prospect of her baby being experimented on, particularly by a guy who wasn't even a practicing doctor, so she left the house with the kid and ran to Dick Tracy for protection.
- Trauma Conga Line: First, she realizes that Mark embezzled five thousand dollars from his bank teller job to bet on horses. Then they lose every. Single. Bet. Then Mark threatens to blackmail Bookie Joe for a loan that the bookie refuses. So Mark shoots him. Then Bookie Joe sent someone to blow Mark up with a bomb at his job. Just after being cleared of charges in Bookie Joe's shooting and Mark embezzling, she's being temporarily held as a matter of process. One of Joe's henchmen takes a concealed pen-gun and shoots the guard watching the two of them, framing her so she goes to jail. Just as Dick Tracy is able to prove she's innocent and is on his way to get her out of the clink, a riot breaks out and she gets blinded by tear gas. Sheesh!
- What Happened to the Mouse?: She and Kress Kroywen disappeared from the strip after their adventure with her baby, and only she reappeared later, single, with no word of what had happened to her husband or child.
Villains
Big Boy
An infamous mobster and head of much of the organized crime in Tracy's city. Had Tess Truehart's father Emil murdered, setting up his future animosity with Tracy.
- Arch-Enemy: One of Tracy's most recurring foes.
- Bald of Evil: In his old age.
- Big Bad:
- Presented as this in his initial storyline. Tries to become this again before dying, but is helpless against the crime syndicate.
- Serves as this for the 1990 movie.
- The Chessmaster: Was usually depicted as a villain orchestrating things versus doing it himself.
- Dirty Coward: In the 1990 movie, he sends all his men out to die while he escapes out the back.
- The Don: One of the leaders of the Apparatus.
- Expansion Pack Past: Was involved in the Xylon Conspiracy, which was retconned into the strip's timeline in the 1980s.
- Expy: Based on Al Capone, just as Tracy was based on Elliot Ness.
- Fat Bastard: His nickname doesn't just refer to his status in the underworld.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: His final appearance has him dying of a heart attack as an old man, decades after his prime, with his wish to kill Tracy unfulfilled. Even when alive, the Apparatus treats him like nothing more than a pathetic washout and a fool who's threatening their business, and indirectly freezes him out with their counter-offer because they don't see him as worth eliminating personally.Board Member: We can't threaten you, a dying man... but we can counter your "open contract" with a second $1,000,000 open contract... on anyone stupid enough to kill — or try to kill — Dick Tracy.
Big Boy: You can't DO this... don't you know who I AM?!
Board Member: You used to be Big Boy.
[Big Boy shrinks, shame-faced, clutching at his blankets] - Karma Houdini: Technically, Big Boy dies with the cops on the threshold of his mansion and is never arrested or killed. Sam remarks on this, and how ironic it is that a man who caused so much violence passed away in bed, while Tracy — with a small smirk on his face — seems to imply that he knows how Big Boy really died: of a rage-induced heart attack upon finding Tracy was closing in on him again.
- Large Ham: Both in the comic strip and the 1990 movie.
- Love at First Sight: He tries to make some moves on Tess. Her continued refusal has him deciding to force her into being a getaway driver instead.
- The Mafia: While not acknowledged as officially existing, he's a part of this.
- Paid Harem: Texie Garcia serves Big Boy as this. Breathless Mahoney takes over the role in the movie.
- Named by the Adaptation: Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice got his last name from the 1990 movie.
- The Syndicate: He is one of the leaders of this before it was acknowledged as existing in RL.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His boys' robbery of Emil Trueheart's delicatessen, murder of Emil, and kidnapping of Tess set a young Dick Tracy on the path of becoming the ironclad lawman criminals fear to this day.
- Villainous Breakdown:
- Has an epic one when Dick Tracy is closing in on him and it kills him.
- Has one in the 1990 movie when he realizes he's been set up.
- Villainous Legacy: In the 2000s, a teenager called Little Boy tried to resurrect Big Boy's criminal empire, even restoring the hotel penthouse he once ran his empire from. He claimed that Big Boy was his grandfather, but in reality, they weren't related, and Little Boy was actually invoking this trope.
William "Broadway" Bates
An early foe of Dick Tracy's, who made an unexpected reappearance many years later in the 2010s, where it's implied that he's the brother of a certain rotund, monocled, faux-cultured supervillain from a certain city famous for a certain crimefighter.
- Anvil on Head: He set a trap for Tracy wherein a load of bricks was dropped on him.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: While Tracy was his captive, he beat him with a cane and held a blowtorch to his feet.
- Domestic Abuser: In his 2010s storyline, he ordered his men to open fire on the Black Piranha and Willa Scarlett (Belle in disguise), knowing Belle would likely be caught in the crossfire.
- Intercontinuity Cross Over: In the 2010s comics, he's strongly implied to be the brother of Oswald Cobblepot.
- The Most Wanted: Wanted in nearly every state for extortion and murder, among other crimes.
- Vigilante Man: Left Goth—um, left the city where he'd been previously after getting sick of all the costumed loonies roaming the streets, only to be confronted with stories about The Cinnamon Knight and Black Piranha. Infuriated, he decided to nip them in the bud before they could inspire more vigilantes to show up.
- Writing Around Trademarks: Neither Gotham City, Penguin, or the Batman are specifically mentioned in his 2010s storyline.
Belle
Broadway's girlfriend and partner in scheming. She usually helps him with confidence scams.
- Badass Normal: In her guise as a costumed hero, she demonstrated acrobatics and fighting skills.
- Becoming the Mask: While masquerading as "Willa Scarlett", she grew to genuinely like Black Piranha and after being gravely injured, expressed her wish to have been able to work with her more.
- Crocodile Tears: One of her best weapons as a con artist.
- Everyone Has Standards: She couldn't bear to participate in Bates's torture of Tracy. She also seems to have thought he was just going to scare off the two costumed adventurers he was aiming for, rather than trying to murder them.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Somehow, in spite of having watched him torture and attempt to murder a guy right in front of her, she's still in love with Bates and thinks he's a better person than he actually is. Hopefully getting shot on his orders changed her mind.
- Intercontinuity Cross Over: She mentioned being friends with a girl named Harley, who worked for a certain Mr. J.
- Unwitting Pawn: She knew that Broadway Bates was driven to prevent costumed crimefighting from taking hold in Dick Tracy's city, but she didn't realize he'd be willing to potentially kill her to do it.
Steve Brogan aka Steve the Tramp
- Abusive Parents: He beat Junior after becoming his stepfather, and this only got worse after Mary left them.
- Accidental Truth: When he learns that mining magnate Harry Steele is giving out a $5,000 reward for his long-lost son, he realizes that Junior is exactly the kid's age and decides to kidnap him and present him as the missing boy. Well, guess what? Yeah. Which is funny, because you'd think he'd remember the guy whose wife and child he'd stolen. Oh, well.
- Affably Evil: As much of a violent person as he was, he could be friendly and charming as well. Notably, he had a number of friends and allies to call on when he needed help.
- An Arm and a Leg: Lost a leg at some point.
- Back-Alley Doctor: The good news is that Larceny Lu managed to patch up all the wounds he got during his prison escape and he lived. The bad news is that she doesn't go by "Facial Reconstruction Lu" for good reason.
- Be All My Sins Remembered: Even after reforming and dedicating his life to helping others, Steve still can't forgive himself for the way he treated Junior—even if Junior does.
- The Big Guy: Unusually large, strong and tough, even for a thug-type.
- Domestic Abuse: He beat Mary Steele while she was married to him.
- The Drifter: He likes the wandering life, even after reforming.
- Easily Forgiven: Seven years in jail seems to be a pretty short term for the violence and murders he committed, including four prison officers.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Justified. Years of taking damage as a result of his criminal activities and hard living, as well as going to Back Alley Doctors, really added up on Steve's face. Once he reforms, he actually starts looking somewhat presentable again.
- Eye Scream: Was blinded in one eye while in prison.
- Heel–Face Turn: After being released from prison, he cleaned up made amends to Tracy and Junior and started a normal life—marred with the odd stroke of bad luck.
- I Owe You My Life: After Larceny Lu got the bullets from his prison escape out of him and patched him up, he swore he'd do anything for her. She then recruited him to help her take back her automobile theft ring.
- Made of Iron: He's an extremely resilient person—at one point he got seven bullets removed.
- Nightmare Face: He wasn't exactly pretty before his prison break, but Larceny Lu didn't stitch his scalp back together quite right, and his face ended up mangled, particularly around his eyes.
- Would Hurt a Child: He regularly beat Junior, forced him into a life of crime, and was about to throw him in front of a train when Dick Tracy intervened.
Texie Garcia
The gun moll and sometimes girlfriend of Big Boy.
- Adaptational Badass: The tie-in prequel comic shows that she's the madam of a brothel who blackmails her clients, as opposed to a perennial gangsters' moll as in the comic.
- Demoted to Extra: Appeared in the 1990 film at the gangster council. She also was arrested by Tracy for prostitution in the Failure Montage.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Her appearance is based on Dolores Del Rio.
- Paid Harem: She is Big Boy’s moll.
- Smurfette Principle: The only female gangster in the 1990 movie.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Unlike most Tracy villains, she got arrested rather than killed and has never been heard from since.
Dan "The Squealer" Mucelli
A dope peddler who tried to use Junior to get information on Dick Tracy.
- Frame-Up: Framed Junior for shooting Dick Tracy by turning the lights out, shooting Tracy and putting the smoking gun in Junior's hand. Thanks to Tracy's knowledge of ballistics, this didn't hold up for too long.
- Gambit Roulette: He and Texie Garcia knew that Tracy had evidence fingering them as members of a dope smuggling ring, so they hired Junior on as a bread delivery boy in order to gradually win his trust and find out information they could use to get the evidence away from Tracy. Unfortunately for them, Junior decided to break open one of the loaves.
- Would Hurt a Child: Would Frame a Child for Attempted Murder.
Stooge Viller
A slick and intelligent gangster who's recruited from outside the City by the mob to help bring Dick Tracy down for good.
- Accidental Murder: He didn't plan to shoot Hank Steele, but he was startled and pulled the trigger when the blind man put up a fight and hit Stooge with his cane.
- Accident, Not Murder: After he kidnapped his daughter Binnie, he was tussling with Dick Tracy. When he tried to kick the dropped gun his daughter Binnie had picked up and pointed at him out of her hands, it went off.
- Big Bad: A surprisingly good argument could be made for his being Tracy's archenemy. His first appearance has his utterly (but temporarily) ruin Tracy's reputation with everyone but Junior using a little manipulation (a feat unmatched to this day), and his second appearance has him kill Junior's biological father.
- Don't Tell Mama: Asks Tracy not to tell his daughter that the shot she accidentally fired at him eventually caused his demise by gangrene. Rather he asks Tracy to tell her he's in the big house.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He became obsessed with reuniting with his estranged daughter Binnie, who wanted nothing to do with him, to the point that his gang kicked him out. On his deathbed, he requested that Binnie never learn that she had accidentally killed him.
- Expy: Of famous gangster and tough guy actor Edward G. Robinson.
- Five-Finger Discount: A masterful pickpocket and sleight-of-hand expert.
- Frame-Up: His original plan, which revolved around framing Tracy for his crimes and destroying his reputation. He very nearly succeeded too.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Ends his days in prison, dying of gangrene with only his old enemy Tracy by his side.
- Knight of Cerebus: While Big Boy and the strips other early villains weren't exactly a pleasant lot, Viller was one of the first to be utterly ruthless.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He tries to kidnap Junior, but the boy's blind father Hank Steele strikes him with his cane and Stooge reflexively shoots him. The last panel shows that even he's shocked by what's happened.
- Near-Villain Victory: Other than possibly Flattop, Viller is the criminal who's gotten closest to destroying Tracy for good.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Resembles Edward G. Robinson.
- Pet the Dog: As noted, his last wish was that his daughter never find out the truth about his death, for her sake.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Trying to kick the gun out of the hand of someone with their finger on the trigger is ill-advised.
- Would Hurt a Child: He planned to kidnap Junior to avenge himself on Tracy.
Jimmy White
The son of a rich man, Jimmy grew up without much guidance and became a criminal for kicks.
- Baddie Flattery: Jimmy's sincerely impressed with The Kid and offers to let him hang out with his gang, The 25 Club.
- Blackmail: He planned to have Junior commit a crime so that he'd be under Jimmy's thumb.
- Calling the Old Man Out: When Jimmy's father comes to visit him in prison, Jimmy at first can't bear to face him, but when his dad asks why Jimmy started his life of crime, Jimmy snaps and angrily blames the old man for neglecting him and then disowns him.
- External Combustion: After failing to get the rest of his manuscript from Jean Penfield, he and his crooked lawyer tried to kill her with a car bomb.
- Forced into Evil: Or at least more evil than he'd planned for. After Jimmy agreed to an interview at Jean Penfield's home for her crime book, his lawyer Spaldoni made him steal her manuscript. Although he was very reluctant about doing so, Jimmy eventually went through with it, knocking Penfield out and swiping it, although it turned out he only got the first two chapters. Later, the powerful gangster Big Boy, whom Jean's book was exposing, insists Jimmy get the rest of the manuscript.
- I Gave My Word:
- He's upset with Spaldoni about being ordered to knock out Penfield and steal her manuscript because he'd given his word to agree to be interviewed in exchange for her bailing him out of prison. Spaldoni points out that he never promised not to steal the manuscript afterwards.
- Later as he's pursuing Penfield with the intention of killing her, he gets into a cab and tells the guy he'll give him a five-spot for cutting her off. The cabbie refuses, so Jimmy pulls his gun. After the cabbie cuts her off, Jimmy still gives him the fiver, as promised. Nice kid.
- I Should Write a Book About This: He agreed to be interviewed by Jean Penfield for a book about the city's organized crime, but stole part of the manuscript when it turned out there was incriminating evidence against Big Boy in it. Jean shot and wounded him when he tried to steal the rest.
- Karmic Death: While he was holding a gun on Jean, whom he'd previously planned to kill with a car bomb, and forcing her to drive out to the country, she lost control of the car and crashed into a massive gasoline storage tank. She got thrown outside the car and a safe distance away by the impact. He...didn't. BOOOM.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Looks an awful lot like James Cagney.
- Parental Neglect: His father was so busy with his job that Jimmy barely saw him twice a week. Jimmy eventually started drifting towards the wrong crowd and pulling crimes for kicks, and the old man didn't even notice. What's tragic is that his dad never intended this to happen, and dearly loved his son, slaving at his job so that Jimmy could live in plenty.
- Revenge: Eventually, he became obsessed with getting revenge on Jean Penfield, blaming her for the police pursuing him. And, you know, not the crimes.
- Thrill Seeker: Why he got into crime.
- You're Not My Father: As mentioned above, Jimmy furiously disowns his father after blaming the man for his becoming a criminal. Although upset, his father ultimately decides not to bail him out, possibly as a result.
"Spuds" Spaldoni/George Bumpstead
Big Boy's personal lawyer, who planned to take over his gang.
- Adaptational Ugliness: Somewhat. He looks fairly normal in the comic, but in the movie James Caan has prosthetic makeup which distorts his features slightly, albeit not to the same degree as some of the other characters.
- Black Sheep: He was born into a law-abiding family, with his brother J. Scotland Bumpstead being an officer for an unnamed European police force. He changed his name when he entered the criminal life.
- Blackmail: After Spaldoni makes Jimmy steal Jean Penfield's manuscript, the furious author phones him and calls him out on it, but Spaldoni points out that if she started something people would find out that Penfield had furnished bail for a notorious criminal.
- Deathbed Confession: He exonerates Tess on his deathbed.
- Didn't Think This Through: Lets Junior Tracy escape his hideout in order to trap Tracy when they inevitably show up. This goes worse then you'd expect.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He and Jimmy White were genuinely good friends, and Spaldoni blamed Jean Penfield for his death, eventually murdering her.
- Frame-Up: He lifted Tess Trueheart's fingerprints and put them on the gun he shot Jean Penfield with.
- I Have Many Names: Sometimes his first name is mentioned as being "Ben", other times "Georgio". His real name is George, though.
- Pet the Dog: His mother describes George changing his name before becoming a criminal so as not to stain the Bumpstead family's reputation as his one good act.
- The Starscream: He was secretly stealing money from Big Boy with the intent of using it to take over one day.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He's smart enough to know how to get a copy of someone's fingerprints to frame them, but he was unaware that forensic technology had advanced enough to prove that the fingerprints were faked, as Tracy does easily.
The Blank
A mysterious killer who seemingly has no face, who's been targeting several other criminals for unknown reasons.
- The Blank: The Trope Namer
- Breakout Character: Arguably the best known villain of the 30s era, particularly after the movie made him a major character.
- Composite Character: In the 1990 movie, his identity is not Frank Redrum, but Breathless Mahoney.
- Even Evil Has Standards: All he wanted was to revenge on people who betrayed him, and he made sure to harm no innocents in the process. However, he did end up trying to kill Dick Tracy and Pat after they tried to stop him from killing the last member of his old gang.
- The Faceless: His mask makes him appear to be this.
- Nightmare Face: He was disfigured during his escape from prison, most notably losing his nose and lips which allowed his mask to lay flat on his face.
- No Honor Among Thieves: His former gang turned on him.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: In both the comics and the movie he deals death to murderous gangsters, sometimes merely having them arrested.
- Revenge: In 1926, he started the Redrum Slot Machine Gang, but eventually the other members kicked him out and he ended up in prison. Upon escaping, he sought revenge upon his former colleagues.
- Ur-Example: The first of Tracy's Grotesque villains.
- Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Absolutely refuses to seriously harm Junior Tracy no matter how much of a liability he becomes. Not to mention the fact that he saves his life in his introduction.
Purple Cross Gang
A group of armed robbers who disguised themselves with black masks marked with a cross during their crimes. Each member also had a purple cross tattoo on their tongues to identify themselves to each other.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Always appeared wearing black half-hoods.
- No Honor Among Thieves: The gang eventually collapsed and began killing each other over their accumulated loot.
- Secret Identity: The leader of the gang turned out to be a high-ranking politician named "Shirtsleeve" Skelton after his death.
Lee Ting
- Yellow Peril: Zigzagged. Yes, he's a Chinese man who runs a human trafficking ring, but he's just a criminal who happens to be Chinese. There's nothing stereotypical or strange about his appearance or manner of speaking. He seems more normal in both respects than many white people in this comic, actually.
